Two more Mount Si High School senior athletes have signed letters of intent to compete at Division I colleges next year. For these two girls, it’ll be a unique situation, as they will become cross-town rivals.

Allysa McLauchlin and Shelby Sellers, both current rowers for the Redmond-based Sammamish Rowing Association, have signed their scholarship offers and will be competing at universities in San Diego, Calif. McLauchlin will row for the Mountain West Conference’s San Diego State Aztecs, while Sellers will get on the water and compete for the West Coast Conference’s University of San Diego Toreros.

McLauchlin, who visited Gonzaga and Washington State University in recent months, was looking for a change.

“There’s just a vibe in San Diego State,” she said. “All the players, they just hooked me in. It’s just different than all the other places.” SDSU beat out both the Bulldogs and Cougars in her selection process; those programs currently or in the past have had Mount Si grads on their teams — Chelsie Eddings is a senior this year on Gonzaga’s team, while Karin and Amy Brevick, both of whom graduated last spring, competed for WSU.

Sellers, who chose USD over the Aztecs and Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University, liked the coaches.

“They made me feel really welcome,” Sellers said.

Sellers’ signing with USD did not factor into McLauchlin’s decision, according to the senior, but it makes things a lot easier on her as she transitions into independence.

“Just (Sellers) being close is a good thing though, so it’s someone that I know, and we plan to stay together through college,” McLauchlin said.

Unlike some recruitments of high school athletes that have made the news in recent months, McLauchlin’s was pretty conventional.

“I started applying at the beginning of the school year and I applied to five different schools,” she said. “I applied to all those and then I started getting calls to come and visit the schools.”

Following her San Diego visit, “I decided within a week,” McLauchlin said. “I sent my papers in… and I’m official now.”

McLauchlin and Sellers are the latest Mount Si athletes to land on college rowing squads. In addition to the Brevicks and Chelsie Eddings, Chelsie’s twin sister Tara is a senior as well, rowing at Miami, while former Mount Si multi-sport star Katie Woolsey will be helping defend a national title at Western Washington this year as a sophomore.

Sellers thinks all of this is testament to the dedication of local youth rowers.

“We’re so far away from the rowing club, we have to be really committed to it,” she said.

“Get on top of it and don’t wait until the last minute,” McLauchlin advised her peers. “Make sure you look into the schools and make sure you know everything about them.”